Reflection

Today’s Friday Fictioneers photo prompt was submitted by J Hardy Carroll and posted by our fairy blog mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields. I’m deep in the throes of editing my novel so have been absent for a while. But, because we have been snowed in for about a week, I thought I’d poke my head out of a drift and give a stab at a little flash fiction.

In my eyes, your reflection shows nothing more than violence and greed.
What did you say? These are not entities that reflect?
You are wrong. Your violence reflects in the bruise on my cheek, shattered dishes, holes punched in walls.

Stolen hearts prove your greed. Look at your children.
Their sparkling eyes should reflect love given freely, yet, they cower in corners when you walk in the room.

Your heart is colder than stone. Your criss-cross love-hate attitude creates heartache and pain.
Leave us. Leave us now. Before this woman who once loved you, stings you with much more than words.

 

Unbound

Black doesn’t suit her for she craves fuschia, amber, mauve, and cyan.
Peacock feathers and shiny gold beads are the things she needs
yes, needs to weave through her vibrant red hair.
Not this dark, veiled hat that covers her curls and hides her striking blue eyes.

But funerals demand black, scream for tears.
For one day, she’ll provide both.
A trip to Goodwill, menthol smeared beneath her eyes.
Sure, she can be the grieving widow for a day,
smile over tuna casserole and peach pie.

All she has ever wanted is everything he owned.
And, oh yes, now she has it.

The People’s Story

Today Pegman took us to Palisade Rim/Ute Petroglyph Trail, Colorado in order to inspire a 150-word story. I’ve visited this area many times and am always fascinated by the petroglyphs, stories told by ancient hands or just a, “Hey! I was here.”

The People lived on this land for one-thousand years
before your people came,
offering greed and war
and turning our landscape into peaks of tattered garbage,
our lakes to pools of poison,
and our rivers into flowing yellow acid.

We hunted bear, fox, antelope, bison,
took only what was needed
and gave back ten-fold,
leaving the land unaltered
while moving place to place.
We thanked Mother Earth for her bounty.
Offered prayers and gratitude when she provided peace.

You? You brought disease, war, and tears beyond all imagining.
Soldiers killed our women and babies; butchered our men.
And when that failed to annihilate us
your men slaughtered our bison,
leaving piles of bones strewn across the grasslands.

Now you are welcome to this earth
for you have ruined the surface
and what lies beneath.
We will bide our time
until your God comes to ask,
“What have you done?”

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